First, I gotta say this was the LEAST excited I felt about watching. I dunno what it is, but it was just eh. Nonetheless:

LADIESAlysa Liu is clearly the USFSA's future who arrived three seasons too early to make a difference. Yes, it makes a great story line. And, yes, here we go again hyping someone as the next one, but I'll jump on the bandwagon and buy the hype!! She's fearless and unapologetically ambitious -- something I haven't seen, really, since Tara Lipinski. She's fresh in her presentation, her basics are decent, her spins are good, and oh yeah, she went 3 for 3 on her 3Axels!

I would've been ok w/Tennell successfully defending had she gone clean in the FS. She really has improved overall and has a more mature presence on the ice than Liu currently, but w/Tennell's mistakes, Liu just couldn't be denied.

Mariah Bell's chances for the US title went down w/that first 3Lutz. She's got great programs and has really honed her performance skills, but honestly, I don't think she'll be factor at Worlds. She doesn't have a 7-triple FS planned and she can't even land her planned jump content cleanly. I don't hear anyone seriously talking about the US getting 3 spots back and w/good reason!

Ting Cui and Hannah Harrell both had great FS performances; I'd be shocked if they weren't our Jr. Worlds Team. Truly and honestly, who else is there?? These two along w/Liu are the baby ballerina trifecta going into Beijing.

Amber Glenn could've been the one to really shake things up, but yet again flopped.

PAIRS:Reason to hope, but w/US pairs, I'm not allowing myself to get too excited. Hard to believe, but the US actually has the 2nd deepest pairs field right now behind RUS and the top US teams really put on quite the show over two programs en route to duking it out for that lone Worlds spot.

The Knierims were a mess this week -- his wrist injury and the abrupt coaching changes and the continued botched sbs jumps. 7th place was correct and I'm glad they were NOT held up in the standings in any way. It's ridiculous that they were still named alternates to Four Continents and Worlds in place of other teams who clearly beat them here this week. IMHO, they need the time off to recover and figure things out.

Calalang & Johnson and Lu & Mitrofanov are both promising pairs, who I hope stick it out for the long haul and develop.

Denney & Frazier -- great pairs skills that are, IMO, right on par w/the Knierims. However, and like the Knierims, the lack of a reliable sbs triple will hold them back internationally. I can see why the USFSA did NOT name them as Worlds alternates. They'd fail to make it out of the short program again without that sbs triple.

Stellato & Bartholomay -- for a split second I thought they'd pass Denney & Frazier based on the relative strength of their two sbs triple passes, and they came really close! However, I think many of their pairs elements are still smaller, slower, and rougher than the rest of this final group. While I can certainly understand the painful sting of not being named to Four Continents, I can also totally understand the rationale of the USFSA. I do hope this team is sent to one of the Senior Bs, i.e., Challenge Cup, and the very least, get named immediately to Skate America. Of course, that's if they're not discouraged after all this.

Kayne & O'Shea -- Real shame on the botched lift. It really cost them dearly and I'm happy that the judges placed them correctly. I also think their case is the appropriate application of Body of Work and US Nationals results in naming ISU Championship teams.

Cain & Leduc -- Even if Kayne & O'Shea hadn't had the botched lift, I still woulda given this win to Cain & Leduc.

MEN:Over two programs Nathan Chen was just superior. Absolutely no contest domestically and I can't imagine these programs being beaten in Tokyo by anyone.

Brown & Zhou, as expected, fought for 2nd. Zhou was the right call here, but it'd be interesting to see who would finish higher internationally.

Among the relative newbies, Tomoki Hiwatashi rightfully won the pewter w/his clean FS, but I like Torgashev and Pulkinen the best. I think Torgashev and Pulkinen have the strongest skating skills and performance abilities among the younger tier men, but they're also very unreliable technically. Pulkinen, who is still quadless, was a DISASTER in the FS just like he was at the Jr. Grand Prix Final. I can't imagine that he'd still be sent to Jr. Worlds when Krasnozhon has proven himself to be the more reliable competitor.

IMO, Camden Pulkinen needs to run, not walk away from Tom Z. I suspect that TZ is pushing Camden to get quads, and that is disrupting his triples technique. Camden's exquisite presentation is being marred by his failure to land jumps he was landing so well a year ago.

Since Camden and Tomoki finished 6th and 7th at JW 2018, the US has 3 men for JW 2019. Hiwatashi, Krasnozhon and Pulkinen are all still age-eligible for JW.

I do think there is one man who can challenge Nathan at Worlds, and his name is Yuzuru Hanyu. If Hanyu can skate close to clean, he can beat Nathan.